


The Start of Something New

by Daelin



Series: Darcy Lewis Crossover Bingo [13]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies), X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men (Movies)
Genre: Darcy Lewis Crossover Bingo, Gen, Practice for a WIP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 14:24:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6379765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daelin/pseuds/Daelin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy Lewis needed roommates to help pay the rent. Though she got a tremendous discount, and the apartment was in Hell's Kitchen, it was still the Big Apple, and it wasn't free.</p><p>Rogue and X-23 have left the institute for a taste of the real world, or so they said - really, Rogue just can't be around people that jump when she's close, and Laura feels much the same, and has also adopted Marie as a guardian. (Well, that, and Logan was being a giant ass, as per usual.)</p><p>Karen Page seriously needs out of the apartment with the bad memories and the bloodstain, even if it comes with roommates. Having people around might actually be nice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Start of Something New

**Author's Note:**

> DLCB - Day 14 - #26 - X-Men
> 
> Title SHAMELESSLY taken from High School Musical.

Darcy rocked back and forth on her heels, her inability to stand still a reflection of her excitement and nerves. Jane had finally moved them back stateside from London (okay, they'd moved because Jane's mom came back from her extended vacation in Spain and kicked them out), and their new home base was New York City.  
Darcy Lewis was no stranger to the Big Apple. Actually, she pretty much grew up here.

Which is why she was standing at the corner of a coffee shop in Hell's Kitchen, waiting for her potential roommates to show up. Her parents had gifted her use of a beautiful apartment in a remodeled building – that they owned, of course – but, like almost everything else in Darcy's life, she was expected to either pay for it or do something for her parents in return – like work for her father, which was something she just wasn't interested in doing. Her mother had pushed for her to go into law after graduating with her political science degree, but Darcy wanted to be with Jane. Working for Jane was both simultaneously nothing like Darcy had ever expected to be doing, and a little bit like everything she had expected to be doing. She functioned now as intern-cum-personal assistant, and with the Stark funding they were anticipating, Jane had made the official promotion of Darcy to PA. Darcy knew the other woman was actually perfectly capable of functioning on her own, but seldom wanted to, because she loved her research. The expected part of her post-collegiate career was the running errands, making coffee, organizing notes, being entrusted with the computer work. The unexpected part, of course, was not knowing on what day your boss was going to make the final breakthrough and punch a hole in space.

You know. The norm.

So Darcy did not go work for her father, whom she loved dearly, but instead took the lease to the apartment and pulled the first month's rent out of her savings account. But just because she could live there alone didn't mean she wanted to. And all the better if it helped someone out. She was a little leery about attracting skeevy people with her ad, so she didn't quite come out and list the price, but a few girls had bit, and emailed.

Just as Darcy checked her phone again – 11:35 AM, she wondered if they had gotten lost on the subway – two young women approached. The older looked to be about Darcy's age, around 25, with some striking white dye in her dark auburn hair, which was pulled back into a ponytail. The younger of the two looked to maybe be 18, at the oldest, with a fashionably frazzled teal bob.

“Darcy?” White-Streak asked when they stopped, looking down several inches to Darcy's 5'3”.

“That'd be me, in the flesh,” Darcy responded, offering a hand. The other woman didn't hesitate to take her hand, though she was wearing thin leather gloves, which Darcy thought the warming weather didn't call for. “Marie?”

“I am,” the other replied with a smile. “This here's Laura, mah sister.” Marie gestured to teal-streak beside her, who reached for Darcy's hand next with a disarming grin that really broke her deadpan expression.

“Hi,” was all she said, though, and seemed comfortable taking the back seat to Marie's lead.

“Well!” Darcy said, handshakes and introductions accounted for, “If you just follow me 'round the corner, I'll take you up to show you the place, we can talk shop and what not.”

 

The apartment was pretty spacious four bedroom, with some exposed brick walls mixing with the very modern stainless appliances, and existed on the fifth floor of a modified walk-up. “It was two different apartments, but the owner wanted some diversity, so in this building and the one next door the top two units function more like a very large ranch house,” Darcy explained as she took the girls on the tour. “What was the front apartment hosts all four bedrooms, a full bath, and the laundry. The back has the kitchen, dining, and living, and a half bath, with my personal favorite bonus-” and she pushed open the outside doors - “a private porch! Well, as private as you get in New York. There's at least a courtyard below, with actual trees, and we can see the sky. As you can see, the previous tenants left us their patio furniture.” She didn't mention the previous tenants were paid to leave that furniture there, since Darcy had liked it so much. “So… that's pretty much the tour. What do you think?”

Marie was looking around at the place, that, even unfurnished, said _expensive_. The wide-plank oak floors were perfectly polished, and the appliances were brand new, and Darcy knew what she was thinking. “You're about to ask me if my numbers were wrong and I quoted you for one bedroom instead of two,” she pre-empted, confirmed when Marie nodded. “Well, here's where we get biased: the owners are my parents, and I get a discount on rent that I am free to pass along to others. I'm not looking to make money here, I'm just looking to cover the bills.”

“It's a gorgeous apartment,” Marie admitted, turning around to admire the dining room and the built-in cabinets. “Honestly, I expected a rat-infested studio when we came to the city, so I still think I'm dreaming.”

“We have the money,” Laura chimed in, suddenly. The girl hadn't spoken, but it didn't appear that she was slow or shy, just quiet. “What about furnishings?”

Darcy threw her hands out to the side. “Up to us! We can decorate as we see fit. Well, we'll probably have a fourth, she gets her lunch break at noon and is coming over then. I mean, if you two are in. We can troll some websites, or some thrift stores. I'm really not picky. This much modern isn't really my style, I'm super eclectic.”

“I'd have never guessed,” Marie replied teasingly, a smile tucked into the corners of her mouth. “This is perfect. We're in.”

Darcy whooped. “Alright! Excellent!” And as if on cue, her phone trilled. She dug it out of her pocket and read the text, replied almost instantly, and then trotted over to the call-box by the door. “And as if on cue, to complete our merry band, Potential Roommate Numero Quatro is here. I'mma buzz her up. Since you two signed on first, would you like to stay on as welcoming committee-slash-judge-and-jury?”

Marie laughed outright at that. “I don't actually think we've signed anything just yet,” she said, her Southern drawl warming up. “But I reckon we can stick around and convince her to stay.”

“That's the spirit! The faster we get four names on the lease, the faster we move in,” Darcy agreed, bouncing on her toes and opening the door, peering into the hallway. “AHA! You must be Karen!” she said to the hall, opening the door the whole way. “Come in, come in.”

A blonde, blue-eyed woman in slacks and a blouse and carrying a satchel stepped in, eyes smiling. “And you must be Darcy! Hi! Thanks so much for meeting me on my lunch break.”

“Not a problem,” Darcy told her, shaking her hand. “At all. Really. My boss should be sleeping until mid-afternoon at least, so I'm bueno all day. Oh! Hey! This is Marie, and this is Laura,” she said, gesturing to the other girls. Karen approached them in a friendly but business-like fashion, and shook hands with them also. “Former tenants, or new tenants?” Karen asked them.

“Brand new, as of about five minutes ago,” Marie replied with laughter in her voice.

“Not officially yet, but we have just agreed to move in,” Laura added. “The apartment looks very nice.”

“Come on, tour time!” Darcy called, taking Karen on the same tour she had just taken Marie and Laura on. The latter two waited in the empty dining room.

“What do you mean, your boss will be asleep until mid-afternoon? Night owl?” Karen asked Darcy, peering into the second bedroom.

Darcy laughed. “You could say that. She has been doing a lot of night-sky readings lately. She's an astrophysicist, so her schedule fluctuates with no rhyme or reason, at least to me. I'm her PA, which encompasses pretty much every level of assisting,” she explained. Ah, Jane. “We just moved back stateside - we've been in London – and she's got a place to shack up while she waits for her boyfriend to come home, but I really don't want to live where I work.”

“Understandable. I take so much work home with me sometimes I wonder why I don't just sleep at the office,” Karen replied. She didn't mention that lately she HAD been sleeping at the office, just to get out of her own apartment and the bad memories there. “My lease is up, though, and I'm dying to get out, but I work here in Hell's Kitchen. I didn't want to go too far.”

The two had made their way back to the living space, and as they re-joined Marie and Laura, Darcy wrinkled her nose. “I should have worn heels to do this tour.” Karen towered over her, as did Marie, but Laura was at least close in height. “So, Karen, whattaya think? I mean, you can totes have some time to think it over, I don't want to pressure you or anything.”

“The price you gave me -” and she quoted it - “is still correct?”

“Yup,” Darcy replied, popping the 'p.' “Written into the lease, so I promise the price won't go anywhere. Full disclosure: my parents own the building. I don't get free rent, but I do get a discount. Also, that means if they don't fix something, I change their wifi password until they come fix it.” All the young women giggled, even the reserved-seeming Laura.

“I wouldn't mind taking a copy of the lease to read before I sign it, but I will say as it stands now, I'm totally in,” Karen stated.

“Yes! ROOMIES!” Darcy held her hands up for high fives, which she got in staggered order. “Of course, I'll send a copy of the lease to the emails you responded to me with, if that's ok?” At their nods, she grinned. “Excellent. Excellent! Can't wait. Also, we'll talk furnishings and such. Like I said, my boss should wake by mid-afternoon, but honestly I don't expect her to need me until much later tonight. What's everyone doing for dinner?”

“I work at a lawyer's office, I'm normally done at 5:30,” Karen offered. “I don't have dinner plans.”

“We're free, too,” Marie volunteered. “I don't start working until this weekend, and Laura's in online classes for Berkeley at the moment.”

“Sweeeeet. Okay, is Scully's Diner still around?” Darcy looked at Karen, who nodded, and then at the other two. “Scully's. It's pretty much just around the corner. It's relatively inexpensive. We'll meet at, say, 6:30 and hash out how we're furnishing the place. Sound good?”

“It sounds great,” the blonde smiled.

“Like a new beginning,” Marie chimed in.

“If I may,” Darcy said, as she opened the door and let them all exit, “This could be the start, of something new…!”

Two of the girls groaned at her singing, while Laura furrowed her brow.

Ah well, Darcy thought, locking the door behind herself. She now had their very first movie night planned, and she could maybe even drag Jane over.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, I'm not entirely happy with this - first time trying to write four people at once, and I couldn't decide if I was focusing on Darcy or doing a more omniscient narrator. Since this is a Darcy challenge I wound up trying to focus on her POV, but it didn't always portray the others at the depths that I wanted... oh well! Learning experience!
> 
> This is sort-of part of a WIP I have going on, so yes, you can expect to see more of this universe.
> 
> Jodelle Ferlund is currently my head canon for Laura, and although I'm picturing her in her younger years here, I loved her hair for the show Dark Matter. 
> 
> Don't tell me if Karen moved out of that apartment, I just started DD Season 1 a bit ago, I'm halfway through, (although I at least know how this season ends), and I obviously haven't gotten to season 2 yet. :P soon, soon!


End file.
